The new "Premier League" season will start on August 13th, which means that there are only 6 days left until the start of the English championship. As the competition approaches inexorably, Eurofootball.com will provide you with an overview of all twenty "Premier League" teams.
This time, we will review the team that finished in seventh place in the last season of the "Premier League" - "West Ham United", which raised very ambitious goals during the off-season.
"West Ham United"
History:
The team was founded in 1895 and will play their 21st season in the "Premier League". Their best finish in this league was 5th place.
They will play their fifth consecutive season in the "Premier League".
Last year's season:
The 2015-2016 season of the "Premier League" was very turbulent for "West Ham" team. After 10 rounds, they were in third place in the standings, but then they failed to win for 8 matches in a row and dropped to the tenth position. Later, there was another climb to the top and a fight for a place in the first quartet, but losses at the end of the season against "Swansea" and "Stoke City" led them to take the seventh place in the "Premier League".
Changes after last season:
Despite the club management's statements about searching for a top-level striker, "West Ham United" did not strengthen this position during the summer. However, the team welcomed a few newcomers - attacking midfielder Sofiane Feghouli and defensive midfielder Havard Nordtveit joined the team for free, while Gokhan Tore was loaned from the "Besiktas" team for 3 million euros.
The most expensive purchase of the summer already represented the club during last season. Manuel Lanzini was loaned from "Al-Jazira" team last year, and during the off-season, "Hammers" decided to buy his contract for 12 million euros.
The only significant loss for the club was James Tomkins, who joined "Crystal Palace" for a sum of 11.7 million euros.
Players to watch:
Sofiane Feghouli. Feghouli comes to "West Ham" after the end of his contract with "Valencia" and after his worst personal season in Spain. Nevertheless, in the four previous seasons, he was directly involved in 51 goals in the "La Liga" championship, scoring 26 goals himself. Therefore, this season he will be full of motivation to prove that he can successfully play at the highest level. He already reminded of his abilities in this season's Europa League qualifiers, when he scored a goal against "NK Domzale".
Gokhan Tore. Tore, considered one of the most talented players of his generation, has not yet been successful in his career. After arriving early in the "Chelsea" youth team, the Turk returned to Germany after two years, where he was born and started his career. However, neither in the "Hamburg" club, nor later in the "Rubin" team in Russia, did Tore establish himself in the main lineup, and eventually he moved to the "Besiktas" team in Turkey. After showing good play there, the 24-year-old player decided to once again try his luck in England. He moved to "West Ham United" for one season, for which the "Hammers" paid 3 million euros to the Turks. If the player leaves a good impression in this team, "Hammers" will have the opportunity to buy his contract after the season.
Dimitri Payet. In recent years, Payet has shone not only in the "Premier League" but also in the European championships representing the French national team. Now the midfielder will undoubtedly attract more attention from opponents, and he will have to prove that he can be the leader of this team. Deciding to stay at "West Ham United" this summer, Payet will be the player that all fans will be watching, and hopes for achieving even higher results will be associated with him.
Team strengths:
Set piece execution. Last season, "West Ham United" stood out in the successful execution of set pieces in the "Premier League". Leaving the execution of set pieces to Dimitri Payet, the "Hammers" enjoyed the fruits of this decision - during the last season, they scored 16 goals from set pieces, second only to the "Tottenham Hotspur" team in this indicator. Payet is expected to continue taking almost all of the team's set pieces, so opponents will have a lot of problems defending against the set pieces performed by this team in the next season.
Created opportunities held themselves and a successful execution of them. If we exclude three matches in December last year, when "West Ham" failed to score against the opponents' goalkeeper three times in a row, in the remaining 35 matches without goals, this team was left only twice and on average scored 1.86 goals per match. This team had opportunities almost every game, and they did not leave without scoring in 13 of the last 14 "Premier League" matches of the previous season. They will be ready to continue this streak in the upcoming season.
Successful games against top ten teams. In 18 matches against top ten teams, "West Ham United" earned almost as many points (30) as in 20 matches against teams in the bottom half of the table (32). Having stumbled only four times against the top nine teams and secured 8 victories throughout the season, "West Ham" proved that they can compete with everyone. However, their results against other teams were as inconsistent, and this was what they lacked the most when fighting for a place in the next year's Champions League.
Interesting facts about "West Ham United":
In 2013, "West Ham United" signed a 99-year lease agreement with the London Olympic Stadium, where they will start playing from this season;
This team is one of eight in English football history that has never played lower than the second division of this country's football;
In 1980, "West Ham" was the last team that played in the lower league to win the FA Cup;
This team is also the last one to win the FA Cup having only English players in their squad. This happened in the 1975 final;
Chelsea legend and current "New York City" player Frank Lampard's father spent almost his entire football career at "West Ham United", where he played 670 matches. This is the second result in the club's history;
The coach of this team, Slaven Bilic, writes songs and plays in a Croatian rock band called "Rawbau";
The player who has played the most matches in this team is Billy Bonds - 799. The player who has scored the most goals is Vic Watson, who scored 326 times.
